Trump: U.S., N. Korea already talking
Report says CIA director met with Kim over Easter weekend
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that direct talks with North Korea have al- ready begun at “extremely high levels” and that five undisclosed sites are being considered for his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, signals that plans for a once unlikely summit between the two have new momentum.
“There’s a great chance to solve a world problem,” Trump said. “This is not a problem for the United States. This is not a problem for Japan or any other country. This is a problem for the world.”
Late Tuesday, The Washington Post reported that CIA Director Mike Pompeo made a top-secret visit to North Korea over Easter weekend to meet with Kim, according to two people with direct knowledge of the trip.
The extraordinary meeting was part of an effort to lay the groundwork for direct talks between Trump and Kim about North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, according to the two people, who requested anonymity because of the highly classified nature of the talks.
The clandestine mission came soon after Pompeo was nominated to be secretary of state.
The CIA declined to comment. The White House declined to comment as well. Diplomats at the North Korean mission to the United Nations in New York also declined to comment.
About a week after Pompeo’s trip to North Korea, U.S. officials said that officials there had directly confirmed that Kim was willing to negotiate about potential denuclearization, according to administration officials, a sign that both sides had opened a new communications channel ahead of the summit meeting and that the administration believed North Korea was serious about holding a summit.
Trump’s comments came as he tried to reassure Japan, a key ally in the region. With Japanese Prime Minster Shinzo Abe at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago retreat for two days of talks, the president said that the United States and Japan “are very unified on the subject of North Korea.”
Trump also praised negotiations between North Korea and South Korea, which were reported Tuesday, to officially end the war between them that concluded in 1953 without a peace treaty. A treaty would be a crucial step toward ending North Korea’s isolation.
Trump did not name any of the potential sites for a meeting between him and Kim, though he shook his head no when asked whether the United States was a potential venue.
“We’ll be having discussions with Kim Jong Un very soon,” Trump said. He added that talks could take place by early June “assuming that things go well.”
“It’s possible things won’t go well and we won’t have the meetings and we’ll just continue to go on this very strong path we have taken,” Trump added.
The prospect of talks between Trump and Kim have Japan on edge, given the risk to Japan posed by North Korea, a hostile, nuclear- armed neighbor. Japan has depended on the U.S. for its defense since the end of World War II and views any potential shift in strategy with apprehension, particularly any deal that would require the U.S. to pull back some of its troops from the region.
The Japanese were neither consulted nor informed before Trump announced last month that he would meet with Kim. The Japanese are also frustrated with Trump’s recent round of steel and aluminum tariffs, which exempted other allies but left Japan subject to higher import taxes.
Even so, Trump and Abe, who is facing heightened political troubles at home because of a land sale scandal, have forged a bond. As they sat down Tuesday amid the gilded chandeliers of Trump’s club, Trump and Abe exchanged smiles and talk of another round of golf, which has been the basis of their personal diplomacy.
Abe emphasized the success of the joint U.S.-Japan “maximum pressure’ strategy that prompted Kim to request talks with Trump.
The Japanese prime minister employed the approach that he pioneered and that other foreign leaders have since taken with Trump: prodding him with flattery.
Abe praised Trump for his “courage” in agreeing to meet with Kim, emphasizing the potential to make history while underscoring “the importance of achieving the complete verifiable and irreversible denuclearization” of North Korea.
“Donald’s unwavering conviction as well as the determination that you demonstrated,” he said, “...made it possible to achieve this major change.”
Trump tried to smooth over any disagreements with Abe.
“Our nations, I think, have never been closer than they are right now,” he said. Trump said the two countries had made “a lot of progress” leading up to this week’s meeting in talks over trade and security.
Trump’s top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, told reporters earlier Tuesday that the Trans-Pacific Partnership was also expected to be discussed during the meeting, though he downplayed the possibility of the United States re-entering the multi-nation trade deal that Trump abandoned soon after taking office to keep a campaign promise.
Trump said last week that he would review his decision to withdraw from the proposed 12-nation pact, and ordered Kudlow to look into re-entering the deal.
Japan was among the countries disappointed with the United States’ withdrawal, and Abe has urged Trump to reconsider. Japanese leader Shinzo Abe and President Donald Trump share a light moment Tuesday at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.